Suggested roads and sights in Northland?

[shafty]

I've got a week off in October, so Her Indoors and I are planning on a week touring on the bikes North of Auckland. Can anyone suggest any "must see's" or good places to visit? We'll be both camping/motelling it, with country pubs with accomodation being an attraction also. Cheers in advance.

[Maha]

Well there are plenty great roads up this way and beyond. Out through Dargaville/Waipoua Forest/Opononi etc (SH 12) is a must....how far North are you planning on going? Ruakaka camp has cabins and is a beautiful camp to stop off at, its about 30 mins south of Whangarei...( Mrs Maha and myself will be at that camp labour weekend) Mangawhai/Waipu?.... stunning views and twisties....

[Big Dave]

I've got a week off in October, so Her Indoors and I are planning on a week touring on the bikes North of Auckland. Can anyone suggest any "must see's" or good places to visit? We'll be both camping/motelling it, with country pubs with accomodation being an attraction also. Cheers in advance.

Waipoua Forest.
One of the best bike roads on the planet.

[crusa]

do the waipoua forest onto omapere,opononi,rawene,ferry across harbour,turn right to kohukohu,mangamuka,kaitia.There are some great views and roads on this route with places to eat ,you can get gas at opononi,rawene and mangamuka

[Lord Derosso]

Do the Mangamuka gorge, head up to Pukenui and Houhora Harbour, where I grew up, spend a night or two there and enjoy the view and fishing off the Pukenui wharf. Come back to Awanui and turn left and travel around the Bays route which takes you all the way back down to Kerikeri via the Bay of island.
Stop for fish and chips at the Mangonui Wharf. Stay a night in Whangarei and ride up to Mount Parihaki lookout (name since changed??), visit the falls and do the bush walk. Have dinner down on the new basin/harbour area. Head out to Ruakaka. Lots of places to go and enjoy the beachs etc. Enjoy, I am an Northlander born and do miss being up there but I also like to work and earn reasonable money at the some time. Cheers

[Lord Derosso]

One thing about doing the Dargaville side and the Kauri forest..
Watch out for thiefs. Big problem on this coast.

[TLDV8]

The http://www.kauri-museum.com/ is worth a stop.

[WINJA]

Go Thru Dargaville And The Kauri Forest , Then Put Your Bike On The Ferry At Rawene

[Lou Girardin]

Anywhere but SH1, go up one side and down the other. You'll love it.

[shafty]

Cheers Guys - thats great. I'll be at Houhora the follwong weekend on the 4 Points Rally, but will prob go to Reinga as my Lady hasn't been there before.Thanks again!

[Lord Derosso]

Its been a few years since I have been to the Cape on a bike but the last few miles was the worse road I had ever seen. The gravel was not only huge but deep. They need to dump a lot because of the numerous tourist buses. And whats worse is the road is slanted real steep in places. I was with a German rider about years ago and we kept ending up in the curbside because the bikes were 'floating' on top of the gravel. What a hassle trying to get moving again in the loose gravel but we finally got there. Now it may be that we came at the wrong time as gravel does dispense with traffic and you get lanes to ride in, and its possible that they have finally tarsealed it as well. Knowing how big Houhora and north of there has got, it wouldn't surprise me. I can remember when all of the Far North road was gravel roads pass Awanui when we use to travel up to Pukenui as little kids. Living in Pukenui and travelling to Kaitaia College by bus and detouring down dusty roads to pick up kids in the middle of summer. Yuck. Cheers and enjoy the trip though do get an update from a member whom has been up there recently.

[shafty]

Vheers Lord Derosso!

Has anyone been to Cape Reinga recently and can provide a road report?

Cheers

[Scouse]

Vheers Lord Derosso!

Has anyone been to Cape Reinga recently and can provide a road report?

Cheersthe word is Cheers

[Pixie]

Vheers Lord Derosso!

Has anyone been to Cape Reinga recently and can provide a road report?

Cheers

The road is sealed now

[shafty]

Cheers Pixie, great n-e-w-s

[Cajun]

you should be moving rocks shafty, not inside on computer

and put those bags on your bike looks like a scooter

[shafty]

haha - yeah, all rocks now in place, and still time to wash the ST before dinner. Not a bad wee ride today - it handled the wind good which I'm happy about. I saw the GSX14 turn on to the Old Te Aroha Rd, thought bugger that it's windy enough already w/out using that road, so whipped thru via Matamata and arrived just ahead of you. How windy was it?

....and stop looking at my rear end, it's not a scooter at all!! lol:scooter:

[Cajun]

shrug well everything is pretty windy when you are doing warp factor 10. was trying out the new power commander that was fitted to my bike saturday

But wind wasn't to bad, worse wind was coming up the kamais, i put a new whisper kit on my shoei helmet, due to fact it has tons of wind noise, but guess you don't get that with your electric up and down screen and like.

Yeah adele doesn't like that first part of old te aroha rd either, but she alot better with new tires on her bike.

[Indoo]

Well there are plenty great roads up this way and beyond. Out through Dargaville/Waipoua Forest/Opononi etc (SH 12) is a must.....

If your doing sh12 be aware that there now appears to be a fair few HP monitoring it and even a couple of unmarked cars, it was an expensive trip for me last time.

[clint640]

Last time I was up there we basically kept as close to the coast as we could on tarseal, up one side & back down the other, had a ball. There's some awesome roads up there.

Cheers
Clint

[jrandom]

I second all the SH12 comments; it's a great road, and you only have to stay on SH1 for 20km after you get off SH16 and head north to the SH12 turnoff.

I keep planning to get someone to drop me off at Brynderwyn with my pushy; the 70km from there to D'ville would be a great pedal ride.

Keep the Mk I eyeball and radar (if you've got one) peeled, though. I visit Dargaville most weekends, these days, and I see an HP car almost every trip, but I've never seen more than one. I'd venture to suggest that once you've gone past one going the other way on SH12, you're quite likely not to run into more of them.

I suspect they prefer to stake out SH1. I'm not aware of 12 having a particularly bad accident record.

[Beemer]

Russell's a lovely place to visit - try fish and chips on the beach (the shop was called Birdy num-nums in 2005!). Don't forget to visit the chocolate factory at Kerikeri too - think it's called Makana.

And that place that starts with M (memory failing me this morning) where you sit out on the deck of this fish and chip place (bit of a recurring theme here!) - real tourist attraction but lovely meals.

[Indoo]

Keep the Mk I eyeball and radar (if you've got one) peeled, though. I visit Dargaville most weekends, these days, and I see an HP car almost every trip, but I've never seen more than one. I'd venture to suggest that once you've gone past one going the other way on SH12, you're quite likely not to run into more of them.


Thats what I used to think, until unfortunately I met Mr 2nd HP.

[The_Dover]

Thats what I used to think, until unfortunately I met Mr 2nd HP.

I thought you were a pig? Don't you get mate's rates?:buggerd:

[vifferman]

The wife planned and organised a trip round "Oop Norf" for us for Easter. We went SH16 to start with, then turned off before the Brynderwyns and headed for Kai Iwi lakes, Waipoua forest, Opononi, Rawene ferry, Ahipara, then stayed at Awanui. From there we did an early morning trip to Cape Reinga, and missed all the tourist buses (VERY important!). The Cape Reinga gravel roads were a bit rough, but I found that going up the wrong side of each hill, and keeping the speed up over 90km/h where possible helped heaps. On the way bag, we checked out the giant sand dunes on the West coast south of Cape Reinga, and Ninety Mile beach. Stayed another night at Awanui, then rode through to Kerikeri, taking coastal tourist routes where possible. Did the same from Kerikeri to Whangarei, which was such an awesomely winding road I had to stop because I was so tired!

I think the roads up north are very under-rated, especially those mentioned, and even though it was Easter, the traffic was incredibly light, so we had a blast!

PM me if you want any more details.

[Indoo]

I thought you were a pig? Don't you get mate's rates?:buggerd:

Hes HP, different occupation really. And I couldn't be arsed greasing up to him pretending that we do the same 'job'.